Uncharted Waters
by mosylu
Summary: "C'mon, man. I know you and Caitlin were gonna go out, but it's Wednesday night. How official of a date could it be, on Wednesday night?" "I'm wearing cologne and a shirt I didn't buy off the Internet. It's way official." In which Barry totally fails as a friend, but then makes up for it. Mostly.


(A/N) This was a prompt from fiction-over-fact on Tumblr, I think. It's been so long I lost the original prompt. Man, I suck. I think it was something about the Killervibe first date. Since it was written well before the season finale, don't expect to see any fallout from what happened there. Just fluff.

"I really didn't think it would take that long," Barry said.

Cisco started putting his computers to sleep. "Half an hour, dude. Forty-five minute tops. That's what you said."

"I know. I miscalculated."

He threw up his hands. "Ya think?"

"C'mon, man. I know you and Caitlin were gonna go out, but it's Wednesday night. How official of a date could it be, on Wednesday night?"

"I'm wearing cologne and a shirt I didn't buy off the Internet. It's _way_ official."

Caitlin came in, heels clicking fearsomely.

"Heyyyy, Caitlin," Barry wheedled.

She shot him a single burning look. He cleared his throat, backed away. "I'm gonna - I'm going right now."

"Think we're being too hard on him?" Cisco asked her after Barry had whooshed away.

"Nope," she said, crossing her arms. "I was really looking forward to tonight."

"Like I wasn't?" He pointed at his chest.

Her eyes warmed. She leaned back against the lab desk. "I noticed your shirt. You look nice."

"Thanks." He looked her up and down with appreciation. She wore a deep blue dress that hit her mid-thigh, with thin beaded straps. Even the hoodie, borrowed from Cisco because she'd gotten cold after the first hour of hanging around the lab helping Barry with his last-minute, it'll-only-take-a-little-while-man-I-swear metahuman emergency, couldn't ruin the effect. "You do too."

She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Thanks."

He took a moment to absorb that - he'd made her blush. That was a thing he could do now. That was pretty fucking rad. "Look, maybe we can still make it."

She checked her phone. "They close in ten minutes. After that, our choices are pretty much burgers or Taco Galaxy. No," she added when she saw the considering look on his face.

"Come on, you know you love their guacamole."

"Yes, but I planned on eating sushi tonight. I'm dressed for eating sushi. My mindset is sushi."

"Your mindset is raw fish?"

"My mindset is a nice dinner, flirting with a sexy man - "

"You think I'm sexy?"

They watched each other for a moment, both of them shaky in these uncharted waters, but willing to test them out with each other.

"Yeah," she said, lashes dipping, then rising again. "Very sexy."

Hmm. Well. This was . . . he liked this. "How so?"

"Well - " She drew out the word. "You've got great hands, for one." She took one, weaving their fingers together. "I've thought about them on me."

"That's, uh, that's a coincidence. Because I've thought about that too. My hands. On you."

"Yeah? Like where?"

He murmured, "Can I show you?"

"I wish you would."

He'd just started to reach out when a blast of wind make them look up. Cisco dropped his hand, fast, and Caitlin straightened up. Barry stood before them with a platter, carefully wrapped in catering plastic.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked.

"Sushi," Barry said.

"From where?"

"Sachiko's. That's where you were going to go, right?"

Caitlin's mouth opened, then closed. "Barry," she said finally. "Sachiko's doesn't exactly have a drive-thru menu."

"I asked really, really nicely."

They continued to stare.

"And, um, their head chef's boyfriend was that guy I pulled out of the river last week. He even plated it all nicely, look."

They leaned forward. The sushi was arranged in a heart shape.

Cisco tilted his head. "Huh. Wow."

"Am I forgiven?"

Caitlin gave him a considering look. "Maybe." She moved to take it, but Cisco caught her arm.

"Actually, Bear, I might forgive you if you take it up to that one place where we hung out last week."

"Right," Barry said. "Right. Okay." He was gone again.

Caitlin turned to him, confused. "What one place is that?"

"C'mon. Grab your coat. It might be chilly."

"Where?"

"C'mon!"

She followed him up the elevator, up a flight of dingy stairs, and out an emergency door.

"Oh, my god," she breathed.

Cisco bounced on his toes a little, grinning out at the carpet of lights that spread out before them. "Cool, right?"

"Doesn't even begin to cover it. You can see the whole city!"

"That's not all. Look up."

She did, and gasped. Star Labs sat in one of those random urban patches unaffected by light pollution. The real stars spread out over their heads. "Cisco. How did you find this?"

He shrugged. "Just ran across the stairs one day and decided to see where they went. It was before the the explosion. I come up here sometimes. Hang out. Clear my head."

She looked away from the stars, but he could swear they were still glinting in her eyes. "I thought I knew all your secrets," she said.

His mouth crooked up. "Not yet."

The sushi platter, unwrapped, sat on a rickety metal table with a bottle of wine, two glasses, and one of the lab's emergency lanterns casting a surprisingly romantic glow over the scene.

"I know you were looking forward to the restaurant and everything, but this is better, right?"

"I was looking forward to the company. And I've got that."

He smiled and kissed her.

She kissed him back, but broke away after a moment. "Okay, gimme one of those California rolls, because I am seriously starving."

They sat on the lip of the building, eating sushi, talking, flirting, kissing, as the city glowed below them and the sky glimmered above. When the platter was clear and they couldn't feel their fingers anymore, they went back inside, holding hands.

In the elevator, she slid her arms around his waist. "This was nice."

"Yeah."

"You - um." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "You wanna come back to my place?"

"Wow." He got flustered and as usual, covered it with a joke. "Do I look like the kind of boy who puts out on the first date?"

Her mouth twisted. "We spent the whole evening here. If we're considering tonight a date, then it's like our hundred and fourth. So we're way overdue."

"Your logic is sound and unassailable." He kissed her again, and said with sudden seriousness, "Yes. I'd love to."

They kissed softly, lazily. All the time in the world. The elevator swooshed open at the lab level.

"Hey guys. Sorry to bug you. Just there's this one last thing - "

Still kissing, they extended their arms and, in perfect synchronization, flipped him off.

"Okay, no, that's cool, I'll handle it …"

FINIS


End file.
